Re: Special Session - Computer Appli

[JMUCKERHEIDE@delphi.com]

Ted,

>We MAY want to take this discussion off the listserver - but what do you 
>mean by ASCII plotting output??

I decided to stay on the server since I thought my intended use (which I
should have mentioned before) may get someone with more experience and
advise on my proposed general application.

>Do you mean plots that just put characters on a page using printer 
>resolution - roughly 10 char/in by 6 lines/in???

Yes, plots output in ascii characters (I think I have a couple here in
SuperBASIC, but the punched-paper tape keeps jamming the drive slot. :-) I
may have print-outs in the files up there, but I am not enthusiastic about
typing in a few hundred lines of code (converting to current BASIC languages
when I haven't used BASIC for 15 years).

>OR that plot for ASCII files
No.
OR that can print PERIOD.
No.
>BTW - if it DOES print to screen - why not just use a graphics printscreen?

Sorry about not being more specific about my intentions, but several weeks
ago I was putting some data into a sci.energy message and it struck me that
I could make a better point with a quick graph. Spent a little (very little)
time trying to make a quick ascii graph of simple data. I remembered getting
many graphs from some pretty good BASIC and FORTRAN programs off of the old
teletype machines (even wrote a couple). Of the various plotting programs on
the RADSAFE BBS and a couple of quick looks elsewhere, none seemed to be able
to print ascii-character plots (obviously not graphic screen prints). I
thought that if I could print an ascii-character plot to an ascii file I
could use that as a tool for ascii communications.

Do you have any thoughts on the merit/practicality of the idea. 

>Anyhow - there are TONS of this kind of stuff in shareware - both the 
>plotting software and the graphic print screen (not to mention that, as of 
>DOS 5 DOS, PRINT does this too!!).

>I have MOST of what is out there in shareware plotting programs.

>If you mean they make plots from ascii files - I HIGHLY recommend REDWOOD 
>DRAW - a DOS clone of the mainframe TOPDRAWER program.

Not from ascii, to ascii. Since you said FROM ASCII, when I saw it was an
.lzh extension I'm not familiar with, and 222K, I decided to defer the
download.

>Also XYPLOT is an EXCELLENT plotting program to make WORKING plots - ie. 
>studying data - not presentation quality.

I got that among a number of others, but it also did not output ascii
(unless I missed something.

>In any event - once we decide WHAT you want - or even if you or others here 
>want it ALL - I can make it available via anonymous FTP.  I am SURE Hector 
>can get it from there and put it on the BBS too.

Thanks very much. I hope I am more clear on that, and beg your advise on the
application as well as any available software. (I expect I have narrowed the
universe of potential programs significantly.)

Regards,

Jim Muckerheide